In the new issue of In Touch, on newsstands now, Jon Gosselin insists the “so-called normal life” and happy home Kate claims their eight children are living in is far from the truth.

Instead, Jon tells In Touch that Kate has the kids trapped — cooped up inside her rural Pennsylvania home: “They live in such an isolated house,” he tells the mag. “When they’re with me, I let them out into society. I don’t close the gate and make them live in a compound like Kate does.”

“You can’t breathe the wrong way without upsetting her,” Jon says of Kate’s strict rules. “The kids have to ask before they get a drink, before they get a snack, before they open the fridge, before they go to the bathroom. It’s ridiculous.”

As In Touch previously reported, Jon believes she only allows them out into the world “to use them as props” when she has a new scheme to try to get herself back into the spotlight.

He also claims she puts her own need for control above all else and severely limits the kids’ interactions with other children.

“They have problems adjusting with their peers. They are well-mannered, and that is great, but when we go into an environment with other children, they cling to me,” says Jon, who works as a maître d’ and sees his little ones one day a week plus every other weekend.

Locals in the nearby community of Wyomissing, Pa., appear to back up his claims.

During the height of Kate’s popularity, the family was constantly seen out and about in town and were frequent visitors to the mall.

“Now those sightings have become rare,” says one local. Adds another: “I used to run into Kate and her kids all the time. She was always shopping with them. That was a long time ago.”

“I’m trying to teach them respect and love for other people. That’s the big thing: humanity,” says Jon. “They need to look inside other peoples’ hearts. By isolating them, they’ll never learn.”For more, pick up the latest issue of In Touch, on newsstands now.